Museum lighting design is a central theme in architecture. Lighting designer places light at the service of works of art. The space dedicated to the exhibition of works of art represents the application case where the importance of light is most relevant. In the 1980s, lighting design was confirmed as one of the fundamental tools for defining a new approach to the museum exhibition space, which became one of its privileged fields of experimentation. The very idea of a museum evolved, a multifunctional cultural space where different activities coexist. On the relationship between light and works, various professional figures express themselves (often with diverging opinions, as collaborations arise): superintendents, museum directors, curators, conservators, technicians, architects. As is well known, architect Piero Castiglioni devoted himself at the beginning of his profession to the design of exhibition spaces, starting with the Musée d'Orsay. In this specific case, he works in Vienna. The Viennese city celebrates Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart with a large exhibition, organised in the Kunstlerhaus, which houses heterogeneous materials: paintings and engravings, sculptures, musical instruments, sheet music, correspondence, everyday objects and testimonies of the period. It also houses the reconstruction of six sets of the musician's works. It is divided into a guided tour, built by parallel longitudinal walls housing the showcases. These are linked by wooden lattice structures inside which the sound channels also run. The route is accompanied by listening to Mozart's works. Lighting solutions involves attaching museum lighting fixtures to the structure. These, specially designed and produced in small series, consist of copper elements that support a gimbaled joint to allow maximum orientation of the sources. This simple and mobile luminaire constitutes the main element of the museum lighting of the entire exhibition for both walls and showcases.
Project:
Lighting Design Piero Castiglioni
Collaborations:
Gae Aulenti Architects
Photo Courtesy:
Piero castiglioni
Year:
1990
Museum lighting design is a central theme in architecture. Lighting designer places light at the service of works of art. The space dedicated to the exhibition of works of art represents the application case where the importance of light is most relevant. In the 1980s, lighting design was confirmed as one of the fundamental tools for defining a new approach to the museum exhibition space, which became one of its privileged fields of experimentation. The very idea of a museum evolved, a multifunctional cultural space where different activities coexist. On the relationship between light and works, various professional figures express themselves (often with diverging opinions, as collaborations arise): superintendents, museum directors, curators, conservators, technicians, architects. As is well known, architect Piero Castiglioni devoted himself at the beginning of his profession to the design of exhibition spaces, starting with the Musée d'Orsay. In this specific case, he works in Vienna. The Viennese city celebrates Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart with a large exhibition, organised in the Kunstlerhaus, which houses heterogeneous materials: paintings and engravings, sculptures, musical instruments, sheet music, correspondence, everyday objects and testimonies of the period. It also houses the reconstruction of six sets of the musician's works. It is divided into a guided tour, built by parallel longitudinal walls housing the showcases. These are linked by wooden lattice structures inside which the sound channels also run. The route is accompanied by listening to Mozart's works. Lighting solutions involves attaching museum lighting fixtures to the structure. These, specially designed and produced in small series, consist of copper elements that support a gimbaled joint to allow maximum orientation of the sources. This simple and mobile luminaire constitutes the main element of the museum lighting of the entire exhibition for both walls and showcases.
Project:
Lighting Design Piero Castiglioni
Collaborations:
Gae Aulenti Architects
Photo Courtesy:
Piero castiglioni
Year:
1990
Other Projects
This section presents a representative selection of lighting design projects by Piero Castiglioni, developed across architectural, museum, urban, cultural, retail, hospitality, and infrastructural contexts, both in Italy and internationally. The gallery documents a range of interventions differing in scale, function, and context, united by an approach to light as a tool for interpreting space—capable of engaging with architecture, artworks, landscape, and contemporary use.
The featured projects span museums, foundations, and temporary exhibitions, as well as historic buildings, places of worship, public spaces, and urban complexes, extending to corporate headquarters, private residences, yachts, and lighting masterplans. In each project, light is conceived as a design material—carefully controlled and calibrated in relation to the specific characteristics of the site, functional requirements, and the perceptual quality of the experience.
Taken together, these works outline a vision of lighting design as an integrated process, where technical rigor, cultural sensitivity, and contextual awareness contribute to shaping identity, orientation, and spatial value. The gallery thus becomes a design map, illustrating how light can assume different roles—subtle or expressive—while consistently maintaining coherence, precision, and design awareness.
Other Projects
This section presents a representative selection of lighting design projects by Piero Castiglioni, developed across architectural, museum, urban, cultural, retail, hospitality, and infrastructural contexts, both in Italy and internationally. The gallery documents a range of interventions differing in scale, function, and context, united by an approach to light as a tool for interpreting space—capable of engaging with architecture, artworks, landscape, and contemporary use.
The featured projects span museums, foundations, and temporary exhibitions, as well as historic buildings, places of worship, public spaces, and urban complexes, extending to corporate headquarters, private residences, yachts, and lighting masterplans. In each project, light is conceived as a design material—carefully controlled and calibrated in relation to the specific characteristics of the site, functional requirements, and the perceptual quality of the experience.
Taken together, these works outline a vision of lighting design as an integrated process, where technical rigor, cultural sensitivity, and contextual awareness contribute to shaping identity, orientation, and spatial value. The gallery thus becomes a design map, illustrating how light can assume different roles—subtle or expressive—while consistently maintaining coherence, precision, and design awareness.
